Butch Trucks more than once said this is the worst Mountain Jam the band ever played in its long history!!
But they decided to use it because it is album release quality from the Fillmore East recordings with Duane on it.
If one puts on a good set of headphones and cranks it up, the playing is phenomenal.
Berry Oakley especially during Gregg and Dickey's solos is simply fantastic. Otiel, Woody, Lamar, Jack Bruce or Stanley Clark could not have played the bass better!!! How did Berry play like a 30 year veteran at just 23 years old.
Listen carefully with some headphones and hear the "wow" factor!!
one of my favorite bros tunes only missing gregg's vocals.
I heard Butch say this more than one time. He did elaborate one time and his biggest issue was that Duane hits kind of an "ouch" note early in his first solo. Apparently he (Duane) thought it should have worked and went back to it a couple or few times before moving on. It's pretty clear when you hear it, that it just doesn't fit. But by going back and hitting it again a couple of times he somehow makes it ok to my ears. I don't think Butch agreed.Butch Trucks more than once said this is the worst Mountain Jam the band ever played in its long history!!
But they decided to use it because it is album release quality from the Fillmore East recordings with Duane on it.
If one puts on a good set of headphones and cranks it up, the playing is phenomenal.
Berry Oakley especially during Gregg and Dickey's solos is simply fantastic. Otiel, Woody, Lamar, Jack Bruce or Stanley Clark could not have played the bass better!!! How did Berry play like a 30 year veteran at just 23 years old.
Listen carefully with some headphones and hear the "wow" factor!!
@kcjimmy A friend who plays electric guitar told me years ago Duane's guitar is out of tune during his first solo and when it's very noticeable via an ouch note, Duane tries to cover it by going there two more times which Duane shouldn't have done he said. But he said the tuning sounds better eventually and Duane really steps on the gas and rips some hot licks then some cool harmonics and quickly ends his solo. Apparently shortened it from his usual length.
Butch also wasn't happy that after Berry Oakley counts the entire band back in after Berry's solo they are out of sync.
Butch said he had to turn the beat around twice before Duane, Dickey and Jaimoe got dialed in which probably shouldn't be on an album.
And Butch said several of the guys wanted to add it to Eat A Peach so Duane would be on an album quality version of Mountain Jam because this album will be the final ABB album for Duane who founded the band and was it's leader. This version was actually recorded during the Fillmore East shows but not included.
Apparently if Duane had not lost his life during the Eat A Peach sessions, Mountain Jam would have never been on the album.
I appreciate Butch's perfectionist concerns but to me 98 percent of the performance of this version of Mountain Jam is stellar. Berry Oakley is fantastic.
Also it's a short version for the original band.
I've always wondered about that funny out of sync bit on the bass comes back in and it takes a while for everybody to land on it.
I'm surprised that the band didn't have another version they could have used. But this one worked just fine in the end!
@waitinforrain Some of this was easy to overlook ... back in the day. The first half of Mountain Jam was on side 2 - the last part was on side 4. By the time you either found the correct disc (4) - or played through 2 sides of other songs - any anomalies in the reprise were kinda lost. People used to smoke a lot of weed while listening, co it might've gone over many heads (pun) . I just wish that I could play that badly!
This is one of those stories I'm kind of embarrassed to tell but it is funny. My sister bought Eat a Peach and the album "Beginnings" and they were my first exposures to the band. I LOVED them and I was only 10 years old. Soon enough I would own At Filmore East. Now early on I played the two sides of EAP that don't contain Mountain Jam. I loved the band but at that young age I wasn't even curious about a song that took up two album sides. Once I got Live At Filmore East I fell in love with the jams. The extended Whipping Post was unbelievable to my ears. And at the end of WP they broke into another song that wasn't on the Album. As the intro to Mountain Jam would fade out I would be turning the volume up trying to hear as much as I could about this mystery song. What was it? How could I get to hear more of it? I had no idea it was Mountain Jam and that the whole thing was on Eat A Peach. I'm probably 12 years old by then and one day I decided to try this two album side song called Mountain Jam and LOW AND BEHOLD THATS THE SONG THEY START AT THE END OF WHIPPING POST ON LAFE!!! I was thrilled and I couldn't believe I had it there the whole time and didn't know it.
I was somewhat disappointed much later in life when I learned they didn't actually play those two songs back to back and that Tom Dowd had spliced them together. I also don't have to mention what a wonderful gift this site was when I found out I could trade for as many live ABB shows as I was able to obtain. Thank You So Much!
Are you sure Tom spliced Mountain Jam onto the end of Whipping Post? I don't understand why he would do that just to fade it out as it's getting started. Plus Butch Trucks is over on Kettle drums by the end of WP and still on them on the beginning of Mountain Jam.
I had never heard of a splice there.
I've heard or read Dickey and Duane's solos on Elizabeth Reed are from two different shows spliced together because Tom wanted what he thought were their best solos on the same track.
And that Tom spliced out Thomas Doucette's harp solo on Stormy Monday. That is why at the end you hear Berry say "Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues. Duane, Dickey and ....( fade out)
On the later restored version Berry says " Brother Gregg Allman singing the blues. Duane, Dickey and Ace playing the blues ".
But you could be right. It just seems strange.
BTW with those two exceptions, this version of Mountain Jam is fantastic playing from all six guys. They were Hitting the NOTE!?
I think the ouch note inspired Duane to come up with a middle eastern theme from it...as far as some of the more loose parts where Duane and Dickey join back in...when you're improvising there are times the wheel come off the track a bit but they didn't fall on their butts and all the other sections they go through, for me, encompasses "American Music"...there' a shuffle and hard 6/8 jazz feel into a gospel tune...then home...I love it mistakes and all
Talk about splitting hairs. Only someone as intimately involved as Butch would have been that critical. I have always loved it, but then again, I cannot tell what is in tune or out of tune. But I think that's true of about 95% of those who ever bought the record.
@robslob I listened to the entire performance again today and it's a kick butt performance for over 30 minutes.
I like those two places where it's not going well too. It's not mistakes because the energy just washes it away.
Berry Oakley and his bass are just outstanding. That young man was playing his rear off.
All of them are there to make some big noise.
@robertdee You are right no splice there. I have no idea where that came from. I'm old, lol. He did splice the beginning of You Don't Love Me from one show to the end of You Don't Love Me from another show. That worked out really good.
If you ever get a chance to watch The Language of Music about Tom Dowd it's a great movie. Very interesting stuff.
Oh I will. Thanks for the tip!! Tom was a very careful and knowledgeable producer.
I know he told Duane he would quit and not produce At Fillmore East if he didn't get rid of the horn players Duane had with them. Tom didn't think they fit and Tom thought one or two were out of tune.
Another thing I didn't know until years later was Tom had to bail on Eat A Peach when Phil Walden decided to move his Capricorn label from being distributed by Atlantic to being distributed by Warner Brothers. Apparently Tom Dowd was under contract with Atlantic in 1971 and 72.
Butch said years later all their albums should have been produced by Tom Dowd but the industry wouldn't always allow it. Guess that is why Brothers and Sisters and Win, Lose or Draw were not produced by Tom Dowd. They were distributed by Warner Brothers.
I remember seeing the five man band in North Carolina just before Eat A Peach came out and just before Ain't Waisting Time No More was played Gregg said " Here's a song off our new album Eat A Peach which will be out next week and it's on the Warner Brothers label. I was expecting it to actually be on the Warner Brothers label like the Doobie Brothers but when I bought my copy the day it came out, it was on Capricorn. But in fine print I could read it was distributed by Warner Brothers and it was Atlantic on the first three Allman Brothers Band albums.
So for Eat A Peach after Phil moved to Warner Brothers ,Johnny Sandlin was brought in to finish the album and mix the tracks Tom had recorded. I'm not sure why Phil Walden left Atlantic for his distribution.
And when the Eat A Peach album was released Phil Walden gave just Tom Dowd credit as the producer on the album and Johnny was given a "special thanks to":credit. That really hurt Johnny Sandlin's feelings. He talked about it in his book. He was expecting to see " Produced by Tom Dowd and Johnny Sandlin". Johnny said he was mixing the last recordings of Duane Allman playing and recorded a few of the last tracks recorded for Eat A Peach and Eat A Peach sold over 2 millions copies becoming the biggest album Capricorn had ever released at the time and was one of the top albums of 1972 so Johnny felt slighted with only a special thanks on the album after having to take over for Tom Dowd before the album was completed and I guess he was.
"Thank you very much. It sure has been a fine weekend."
"Berry Oakley, Dickie Betts, Butch Trucks, Jai Johnny Johnson, Gregg Allman, I'm Duane Allman. Thank you." 😎
@stratdal Berry Oakley was RIGHT!! It had been a fine weekend of music and joy at the old Fillmore. Out of all the great bands which played there Bill Graham said the Allman Brothers was the best. " The finest contemporary music played here".
Berry's mic doesn't seem to be on to me at the end of Mountain Jam. Sounds as if another mic is picking up his voice.
When Duane begins talking and introducing the guys his mic is loud and clear.
"Berry Oakley, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, Jai Johanny Johnson, Gregg Allman and I'm Duane Allman. Thank you!!"